Thousands of skilled workers in the US want to leave to Canada
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The Canadian government is recruiting high-skilled foreigners in the US and received 10,000 applications in two days.
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A man works in a shoe factory in Mexico on February 7, 2023. (AP)
Canada established a special work permit this week for roughly 600,000 foreign employees who have already received an H-1B visa in the United States, the majority of whom are from India and China.
According to a spokesperson for Canada's immigration minister, Sean Fraser, the program's 10,000 limit was met in the first two days of the week.
Jeremy Belelfeuille, another spokesperson, said that the promotion campaign in place had to be put to an end due to the large number of applicants.
The program, according to Bellefeuille, was a test run, and the minister would now examine further actions.
Each year, up to 85,000 workers are chosen for H-1B visas in the United States, which are essential for technological behemoths such as Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc's parent company Google, Meta Platforms Inc's parent company Facebook, and International Business Machines Corp.
The H-1B visa program enables US businesses to hire foreign employees in specialized fields such as technology, engineering, and medicine. They are typically granted for three years and are renewable.
The majority of the approximately 600,000 H-1B visa holders in the United States are from India and China. If they are dismissed or let go by the firm that sponsored them in the United States, they must locate work and be sponsored within 60 days.
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At the Collision tech conference in Toronto this month, Fraser touted the Canadian work permit geared at Americans on H-1B visas. The meeting draws technology professionals from all around the world.
The moves come as a wave of layoffs has hit the tech sector. Companies such as Meta, Amazon, and Google have made cuts.
The Canadian work permit includes study or work permit options for the accompanying family members of US H-1B visa holders. It became available on July 16 and was scheduled to remain in effect for one year, or until immigration authorities received 10,000 applications.
Bruce Heyman, a US ambassador to Canada during Obama's administration expressed that “Canada sees the opportunity to bring talented individuals into Canada, and if we can’t keep them shame on us and kudos to Canada for identifying the opportunity and attracting them."
Heyman expressed that “Being attractive for the best and brightest to come to America has always been a key to our success and any diminution of that comes with a lot of risk, especially since our birthrate is running below replacement rate right now."
